The Politics of the Body in Weimar Germany

Download or read book The Politics of the Body in Weimar Germany written by Cornelie Usborne and published by Springer. This book was released on 1992-04-08 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyses how the Weimar Republic put Germany in the forefront of social reform and women's emancipation with wide-ranging maternal welfare programmes and labour protection laws. Its enlightened policy of family planning and liberalised abortion laws offered women a new measure of control over their lives. But the new politics of the body also increased state intervention, the power of the medical profession and the tendency to sacrifice women's rights to national interests whenever the Volk seemed in danger of 'racial decline'.